Mato Grosso (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Colonel Lottison tells Biggles about a rare opportunity to arrest Brands, a notorious international diamond smuggler. He has come to Hong Kong to seek information about one of his diamond smuggling aircraft which has come down over the Amazon jungles. Lottison and Biggles confront Brand at a hotel but the wily smuggler produces a box which he says is a powerful bomb. If he takes his finger off the detonator spring, all the people around will be killed along with him. Helpless, Lottison and Biggles watch Brands walk confidently to the hotel exit but a woman blocks his way. She is Lia Hardley, the wife of Leslie Hardley, the pilot of the missing aircraft. She wants Brands to give her an aircraft to search for her husband. Brands insists there is no hope but Lia persists. She claims her husband was deceived into the mission. Brands shows her the bomb and warns her to get out of the way but Lia now takes out her own box! She had followed Brands around and had secretly exchanged his box for a fake. Brands slips on the safety catch and anxiously examines his box. Lottison takes the opportunity and shoots Brands in the arm, forcing him to drop the box. Brands is arrested but Lia gets away in the commotion. Under questioning, Brands confesses that he does not know where the aircraft went down. Leslie, the pilot did not know of the cargo. Two of Brands' accomplices accompanied the pilot knew but they were probably also dead. A police patrol finds Lia's residence but Biggles suggests that she be left alone as she goes about gathering the needed information to locate the crash and find her husband. A week later, two men, Fisher and Jenkins call on Lia with a proposal. They were the two men who had been on board her husband's plane and they had parachuted out before it crashed. They had a map of the location. As known associates of Brands, Fisher and Jenkins cannot show themselves publicly. They need Lia to find a pilot and an aircraft and then they can mount an joint expedition to search for her husband and the diamonds. Lia must go to the Blue Dragon tavern where, they had heard, a pilot was offering himself for hire. A police surveillance van outside overhears everything and Biggles proposes to go undercover and as the expedition pilot. It's the only chance to recover the diamonds. At the Blue Dragon, another pilot, Morton, is offering himself for hire. Biggles starts a fight with him and, on cue, the police arrive and arrest them both. With Morton out of the way, Biggles meets Lia and gets himself hired. The four head out for the Amazon in an amphibian which Biggles supplies. En route, the men discuss the mission. Jenkins tells Biggles that he and Fisher are in fact the two men who parachuted out before Leslie crashed. Now that they had a plane and pilot, they don't need Lia and want to get rid of her. But Biggles says he has other plans for her and she must remain alive. The men disagree but he reminds them that he is the only pilot--will they shoot him also? Lia overhears the entire discussion and realises that she has to work alone. The aircraft arrives and lands on a tributary of the Amazon and the party hires canoes and porters from Rakobee, the chief of the local Indian village. Biggles passes Lia a pistol and warns her that they could be in danger from now on, but Lia tells him she doesn't trust him either--she had overhead everything on the plane. As night falls, the party sets up camp on a river bank. Fisher spots a crocodile in the water and takes the opportunity to trip Lia into the water as she is alighting from the canoe. Biggles charges into the water and shoots into the mouth of the reptile, saving Lia. She is grateful but tells Biggles she still doesn't trust him. The next morning, Biggles awakes to discover that Lia has left the camp, taking with her the canoes, the porters and much of their supplies. Fisher and Jenkins are furious. They accuse Biggles of ruining their plans and being in league with Lia. Jenkins wants ot kill Biggles there and then but a python falls on Fisher. As Jenkins is distracted trying to save Fisher, Biggles runs off into the jungle and evades the pursuit of the two thugs. Biggles tries to make it back to his aircraft but is soon overcome by mosquitoes and falls unconscious due to exhaustion and fever. Some Indians find him and bring him back to Rakobee's village. The chief tells him he can stay in the village while he recovers but he must not get close to the hut of their spirits. Biggles asks about Lia but Rakobee tells him she has not returned. He declines to send out his warriors with Biggles to search for her as he does not want to get into trouble with Fisher and Jenkins. Biggles begins to find suspicious happenings in the village. The villagers all seem to refuse to talk to him. The spirits in the hut seem to be very hungry as food is regularly prepared and brought to them. Then he sees Sheba, Rakobee's wife walking into the jungle holding two flight bags. That settles it. The bags must have come from Leslie's aircraft and they must know where it is. Biggles follows Sheba into the jungle but just then Fisher and Jenkins arrive. Rakobee greets the two thugs but refuses to reveal where Leslie's aircraft is, even at gunpoint. However, Sheba now comes back to the village and Jenkins grabs her--he will shoot her unless Rakoobee talks. The situation is tense but just then, Lia comes out from the spirit hut! The Indians had found and cared for Leslie. They would die rather than talk but Lia refuses to let them take the fall for her. She would lead the two men to the wreck. Leslie did not know there were diamonds on board. The gems would still be there. The two thugs take Lia and Sheba as hostages and move off towards the wreck. Biggles has overheard the entire conversation from hiding and is determined to get to the wreck first. Lia had mentioned that it is by a lake, so he follows a stream, believing it would take him there. Biggles gets to the wreck first and after a long search, discovers the diamonds in a hidden compartment in the cargo hold but he collapses from another attack of fever and falls unconscious in the aircraft. Fisher and Jenkins and their two hostages arrive at the wreck. They lock Lia and Sheba in the cockpit and proceed to search for the diamonds which they discover next to the unconscious Biggles! But Lia, in the cockpit finds Leslie's gun and she holds up the two thugs and orders them to drop their weapons and hand over the diamonds. Jenkins tosses the bag of gems at her. Lia is taken in by this trick and tries to catch the bag and so Jenkins seizes the moment of her distraction and disarms her. Fisher and Jenkins now force their three prisoners back to the village. Along the way, Sheba tells them that the spirits of the jungle would protect the Erigbaatsas and would ensure that they never get away. The talk of spirits and the sounds of monkeys chattering and parrots screeching unnerves Jenkins. Then they come across a monkey's skull tied to a branch. Sheba says its an offering from her tribe to the spirits to ensure that the two thugs are punished. This is more than Jenkins can take. He wants to shoot Sheba there and then but Fisher warns him that once their hostages are dead, the Erigbaatsas would certainly attack. Next Jenkins points his rifle at Fisher and demands the diamonds. He would go on alone, taking only Biggles as the pilot. Biggles refuses to fly for them so Jenkin lifts his rifle to shoot him instead but suddenly he falls backwards with a loud yell. The Erigbaatsas! Fisher tells the prisoners not to move but Biggles urges him to give up. He can never get away alone. The Erigbaatsas are all around him. Fisher fires wildly into the jungle but is almost immediately felled by another dart from Rakobee's blowpipe. Lia and Biggles rejoin Leslie in the village. Biggles tells Leslie that he will still be fined for undertaking an illegal flight but the reward for the return of the diamonds would more than compensate for it. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)